" Helas oui, a present, nous le savons, nous que la Connaissance a desequilibres, nous le savons, qu'en dessous c'est le vide, le vide auquel il faut toujours logiquement et inexorablement aboutir, le vide qui est souverain de tout, le vide ou tout tombe et ou vertigineusement nous tombons sans espoir d'arret. Et, a certaines heures, si l'on s'y appesantit, cela devient presque une angoisse de se dire que jamais, jamais, ni nous-memes, ni nos restes, ni notre finale poussiere, nous ne pourrons reposer en paix sur quelque chose de stable, parce que la stabilite n'existe nulle part et que nous...

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Pierre Loti's novel Madame Chrysantheme (1888) enjoyed great popularity during the author's lifetime, served as a source of Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly, and remains in print to this day as a classic in Western literature. Loti's story, cast in the form of his fictionalized diary, describes the affair between a French naval officer and Chrysantheme, a temporary "bride" purchased in Nagasaki. More broadly, Loti's novel helped define the terms in which Occidentals perceived Japan as delicate, feminine, and, to use one of Loti's favorite words, "preposterous"-in...